


Falling

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 22:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19159924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: This was written using a rubric. I chose a motel, a dog and the line ‘the forest isn’t the only place where ancient flora and fauna reside’. It also responds to prompt 10 of the @xfficchallenges ‘come here Mulder, let me look at that’.





	Falling

The motel looks like it was built out of dirt and animal hide. She takes a long hard look at the front of it and then back at Mulder, who at least has the grace to look as disgusted as she does. The Dog Basket Inn – you’re always welcome to rest your bones here.

“Sorry,” he says quietly and opens the door. “I know it’s not exactly the Hilton…”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know we were going to end up…it’s only one night.”

“We’ve survived far worse,” he says, but his shoulders round and he kicks at a pebble on the footpath, sending it skittering into the car tyre. “We keep surviving, don’t we?”

The room is even more pitiful than the outside suggested. Grimy, ripped carpet, tawdry furniture, drapes with mould growing on the lining. She drops it back and a flurry of dust motes burst into the fluorescent light. “The forest isn’t the only place where ancient flora and fauna reside,” she says and he cracks his face into a half-smile and she feels her heart squeeze a little.

He’s had a rough day. Insulted and humiliated by the law enforcement team. Laughed at by the locals. Roughed up by a stray dog as they chased, and caught the perp, who turned out to be a teenage boy in a Sasquatch costume.

“Let me look at those bites again, Mulder.”

“They’re not bites, they’re just grazes. It was only being friendly.”

“It was a giant hound and it dragged you down like a wolf with a sheep. I think you need to take a shower and I’ll find some antiseptic lotion in my kit.”

“There are all sorts of ways of showing friendliness, Scully.” He looks at the door to the bathroom. It’s almost hanging off its hinges.

“Dogs wag their tails, lick you…”

“Sniff your butt,” he adds. “I know, all I’m saying is that there are lots of ways to measure friendship. That dog was all bark and no bite. Sometimes it’s actions not words that are telling.”

“Okay,” she says, pressing her hand to his forehead. He shifts slightly, closer. She blinks away the sad look in his eyes. “No fever, but you should take it easy. Go shower.”

The bathroom is as gross as the rest of the room, with questionable green-grey slime festering in the corners. When he comes out, wet-haired and softer at the edges, she can see the scrapes down his back and shoulders. “Come here, Mulder, let me look at that. Oh, they must sting.”

“They will after you’re done with me, Doctor Scary.”

She dabs at him and he hisses every time she touches his skin. “Let’s hope you don’t turn into a werewolf, Mulder.”

He mock-howls and bares his teeth. “If I were to transform into an animal tonight, I think a cockroach would be the wiser choice.”

Laughing, she sinks down on the bed next to him. “Is the shower worth the risk to my health?”

He holds his breath. Her cure came at a price. A piece of his soul. He’ll never forget or forgive himself, she knows that much. They’ve navigated a long and twisted path to reconciliation, after Antarctica, after Diana, after Padgett. Their friendship is deeply-rooted but there are fronds unfurling inside her that point to more. The question of what to do about it remains between them with each lingering look, each unnecessary hand to the lower back, each night in a motel with nothing but walls between them. They are closer than most friends should ever be.

“You’ll have to use this, because it’s the only one,” he says, looking down at the rumpled greying towel covering his modesty. “And you do realise we’ll be sharing the bed too? Are you okay with that, Scully?”

“I’m a big girl.”

“Then don’t hog the blankets. It’s going to get cold.” He stands up and grabs a pair of jogging bottoms and a fresh shirt from his bag.

“Friends don’t hog blankets, Mulder.”

When she comes out, he’s rustled up some beer, corn chips, a packet of Oreos and a video. “Movie night,” he says, grinning and taking the top off the Shiner Bock. “Maybe this is a sign we can turn this day around.”

“The Fox and the Hound? Really, Mulder?”

“Seemed apropos.” He settles next to her, back against the headboard. Their legs brush and he glances at her quickly. She sips her beer and tucks the chips between their hips.

It’s not long before she’s cold and slips herself under the covers. He looks a little disappointed. She pats the top. “Come on then.”

He grins, lifts the covers, and stretches his long legs under. “What you said earlier, Scully, about being friends?”

On the small television screen, Tod is practising his lines to approach Vixey and they both end up talking over each other.

“Yeah?”

“Is…is that really what we are?”

There’s a splash from the set and Tod is up to his neck in water trying to catch fish.

“We are, Mulder. We’re friends.” Inside her, the words and feelings she’s kept down for so long are pushing up. It’s so hard for her, this sharing of emotion, declarations. He told her in the hallway those years before what she meant to him, he saved her life in a selfless act of heroism; and then he…His foot taps hers, a kiss of toes. She twists her face towards him.

His brow is crinkled and his mouth is glistening with beer. “Is that all we are?”

Vixey is laughing at Tod and he’s sulking.

“Do you…are you asking me if…we could be more?”

His foot tugs at hers so that their calves are hooked together. Despite the less than savoury surroundings, she feels so suddenly at ease, like they’ve been intertwined forever, and in some ways they have. His hand slips over hers and he rubs the tip of her thumb, as though he’s looking for it to ignite something.

“Is it something you’ve thought about, Scully? Because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past year and you’ve been on my mind a lot. A lot, lot.” He brings their joint hands to his mouth. The cooler air is a shock but the moment his lips press into her knuckles warmth flows through her. “I’ve done some stupid things, some selfish things, and yet you’re still here. By my side. Literally.”

In her periphery, the dog is shielding his fox friend and she thinks about how her and Mulder have always been ferocious in their protection of one another. How they’ve always reacted without hesitation when needed. In the face of adversity and acrimony, they’ve stood strong for each other. Bonded by something without name, without end; a loyalty that exists inside and out.

“I think about it too. I think about you.” She lets him kiss the thin skin on the back of her hand. His face is so close to hers she can smell the beer on his breath, sweet and yeasty. If she leans in just an inch she could taste it, lick it from his lips. “I think we have nowhere else to go from here but forward.”

His lips brush hers and she closes her eyes to truly feel the moment. This is such a small gesture, mouth against mouth for a second, but it is seismic in terms of their momentum. It’s a shift that opens up so much potential. She feels her heart pump and her soul spill open, ready to give, ready to receive. Mulder is her friend, her best friend. It could be a disaster, but right now, in this grotty room, she sees only hope.

“Are we really doing this?” There’s wonder in his voice, awe.

She sniffs out a small laugh. “It looks like it.”

“In the Dog Basket Inn, huh?”

“Could we really expect anything different?”

“I’d like to take you out when we get back. Somewhere more…salubrious than this joint.”

Now she’s smiling. Tracing the contours of his face. “A date, Mulder?”

“With proper food and clean furniture.”

“Sounds fake.”

“I could mark my territory, if that’s more your thing. Shake my fur all over the place. Chew on all the table legs.” His face relaxes into a grin and she kisses him again, this time with more ferocity, more intent. It’s hard to let go, to pull apart. His fingers knead her arms and hers brush his Adam’s apple. Their feet are entangled and the covers are twisting around them.

“Do we take this slow, Mulder? Or jump right in?”

“I feel like if we went any slower, we’d be dancing backwards.”

She lifts a knee up and over his midriff, revelling in the feel of his taut body beneath hers. “Jumping right in,” she whispers and lets herself fall.


End file.
